Fluids such as hydraulic oil and lubrication fluid are used in a variety of machinery. Because these fluids are used in conjunction with moving parts to reduce the wear on those parts and also remove heat, it is important that these fluids be not contaminated.
There are a variety of types of contamination that can occur within lubricating or hydraulic fluid. For example, parts of metal can be worn away from the moving parts and become suspended in the fluid. This is a particularly undesirable situation in that these pieces of metal held in suspension in the fluid can cause additional wear upon parts contacted by the fluid. In addition to suspended particles of metal, lubricating and hydraulic fluid can also become contaminated with water, dirt, organic matter such as bacteria, and other substances that can be found in the system using the lubricating or hydraulic fluid.
To allow equipment to operate at optimal efficiency, the lubricating or hydraulic fluid is filtered and regularly changed to avoid allowing contaminated fluid to be used too long in a system. Changing fluid too often or not often enough will result in equipment down time and expense. Therefore, it is desirable to monitor contamination levels within lubricating and hydraulic fluids in order to change the fluid at optimum times. Today, testing lubrication and hydraulic fluids for contamination can, in some instances, require a fluid sample be sent to a laboratory for analysis. This does not allow technicians onsite to quickly identify issues on equipment that is being tested or serviced in the field. Nor does it allow technicians to determine on the spot whether the lubricating and hydraulic fluid needs replacing.
There are patch tests currently being used but the patch, itself, is analyzed by a laboratory in yielding the same drawbacks as when the fluid samples themselves are sent for analysis to laboratories. Some on the spot fluid testing may be accomplished by systems in the field using lasers and other expensive technology to analyze the fluid. While these systems may provide on the spot analysis they are prohibitably expensive for many applications.
As a result, for many of the above mentioned applications, if not most applications, these sorts of testing units are so expensive or time consuming so as to be not used as effective field testers. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus that permits field testing of fluids to determine whether the fluid needs to be replaced in a compact, portable, relatively inexpensive, and easy to use way.